2012 S40.

Haven't driven it in a month. Took it for a spin tonight around the neighborhood and noticed a burning plastic smell. Followed by the throttle becoming "notchy" and harder and harder to throttle up. Pulled it into my driveway and began looking at the throttle cable at the carburetor. It was smoking. WTF? Then the rest of the plastic covering the entire throttle cable burned off. Large amounts of smoke billowed out from under the gas tank. Uh oh. So I thrashed to get the battery disconnected. Finally got the battery disconnected, and the burning stopped.

Anyone ever see this? I'm guessing that the switch panel on the right side for the starter and engine on/off button must have had a short inside? The throttle cable itself doesn't have any wires in it so I'm guessing it was the ground for a short.

The throttle cable has a metal sleeve under the black coating....and a wound steel center cable - if a wire is rubbing on the cable it is possible that the insulation would eventually be rubbed off and the throttle cable become a ground wire.

It shouldn't be too hard to find the toasted wire!

If system is not properly grounded it will use whatever it can to ground itself , throttle cable must have been the next best ground ! Check & clean the ground connections.